Defense Department Recognizes Top Military Installations

Philip W. Grone, deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment, presented the Commander in Chief's Annual Awards for Installation Excellence during a Pentagon ceremony. One installation from each service and one from the Defense Logistics Agency receives the award each year.

"They are the home of combat power for today and for the future," Grone said. "The efficiencies that we are building today, the innovation that we are building today contributes to that combat power and to a sense of place that our military personnel, our military families, call home."

Installations are considered for the award based on how well they support their missions with the resources available to them. Imaginative solutions for better sustaining the mission, increasing productivity and enhancing the quality of life are key to winning the award, officials said.

This was the second consecutive award for Fort Stewart and the fifth award for Camp Lejeune. The other three recipients were first-time winners. Recipient installations receive a trophy, an "Excellent Installation" flag, and a letter signed by President Bush.

DoD will depend on installations like the ones recognized for excellence this year as it undergoes a major transformation and prepares for the base realignment and closure process, Grone said.

"We are on the ... cusp of the greatest infrastructure realignment that this nation has undertaken, certainly since the Second World War," he said. "With our base realignment and closure process, ... with resetting the force globally ... our success depends in many ways, again, on the innovation and the thinking and the clear execution not just here at headquarters, but in the field, every day at every installation where transformation and change takes place."

President Ronald Reagan created the Commander in Chief's Annual Award for Installation Excellence in 1985. DLA was added to the competition in 1988.